Off to See the Lizard with Gordon and Ken

Aboard Blackbeard's Dive Boat

I talked Ken and Gordon into flying down to Nassau to spend a week on the Morning Star. Here they are eating cracked conch at the Poop Deck.

At dawn, on the day after we arrive, I take a walk by myself and see the local fishermen set up for business...

Our bunks are in the main cabin with a galley...one bad thing is that I put on ten pounds...now I have to lose them again....but the food was great and the rum was free...

Fruit for the week in a hammock..help yourself...

I think these railings are called lifelines? Maybe not....anyway they are mostly full of towels and dive gear....

The water temperature was 78 -80 F. I wore my two millimeter shorty wetsuit...it was plenty...the air temperature was about the same....it was the first week in December...

We did 18 dives including night dives, shark dives, wall dives, wreck dives, drift dives and just plain pretty reef dives...

I think I have the bends...my old motorcycle injury shoulder is really hurting....the shoulder is the most common joint to manifest the bends....maybe I'll stop laughing at the kids with the dive computers and get one myself? Real men have dive computers too?

Time to dive....

There goes Gordon...

Hey Gordon...hold this trident while I take your picture....

Ken is more enthusiastic about the trident...

Gordon checks his gear...

Sunrise? Sunset?

Sailboat...

Another sunset...

Bob with the trident...

Bahamas Blue

The.Morning Star...Carol and I dove from this boat in the 80s and 90s...

Endangered Bahama Iguana...
Bahama... Iguana...Madonna
Bahama ...Iguana...Madonna....Nirvana
Bahama ...Iguana...Madonna....Nirvana...Piranha

Gordon gives a grape...Why am I thinking of Gordon Gekko quotes as I snap the picture?
"If you need a friend, get a dog." or "if this guy owned a funeral parlor nobody would die!"

Want a grape? Some guy cooked one of these endangered iguanas and put it on Facebook. They extradited him and put him in a Bahamian prison....If I had Facebook, I would put all the stupid things I do on it instead of here ...

Finally! They put up the Bimini the last day....

May I take your picture, officer? Eventually, Gordon and I find the Cuba Tour Company and talk to the tour lady about Havana....High season for Cuba is December...

Daphne's on the Dock....we get Conch fritters and Junkaroo Kalik beer...."We're rushin', we're rushin', we're rushin through the crowd ... K-k-kalik, k-k-kalik, k-k-kaliking k-k-kalik, k-k-kalik, k-k-kalik, k-k-kalik, yeah."

Gordon and Ken at Daphne's...

Good companions....

Pray for Surf!

Panacea, Florida

Our first day out we make 300 miles and park on the banks of the Wakulla river where it dumps into the Gulf of Mexico just south of Tallahassee.

Forty-nine years ago this month the Air Force gave me a quick promotion to staff sergeant and sent me here to Florida State University to get a degree on their dime.

I learned to SCUBA dive that year (1964) , poking around in the muddy bottom of the Wakulla searching for mastodon teeth and Indian pot shards.

Lots of flowers in Tallahassee in June. The magnolia trees are stinking up the place.

Mrs. Phred in front of her old dormitory.

The Sweet Shop is still there. Mrs. Phred demonstrated to get the place integrated and people threw things at her. However, her first arrest with Henry came later at the Dobbs House lunch counter.

Inside the Sweet Shop.

We find Mrs. Phred's autograph on the walls of the Sweet Shop....

This is the house I was living in in October, 1965 when I met Mrs. Phred at a cast party. The play was "A Man for All Seasons".

Beach feet....the nail polish is called "Blue Moon Lagoon"....In Abnormal Psych here at FSU they talked about shoe and  foot fetishers...

Two of the most outstanding men associated with Florida State University.

Nic's Clothing  is still doing business downtown. My first credit account, first suit and first dress shoes came from here in 1965.

We go to see the house where we were living when Kenny was born. It had been replaced by a 16 unit Apartment building.

In the afternoon we hit the beach at Alligator Point and eat oysters at one of the many little restaurants that fry up the local catch. A septic tank crew came in for lunch and engaged the wait staff inn a lengthy conversation about the intricacies of cleaning out and maintaining septic tanks.